AC Milan found themselves being dominated in the opening exchanges at San Siro by Roma last night, and it has drawn comparisons to the Champions League semi-final of last year.
As MilanNews write, the Giallorossi started the game on the attack, with good ball possession, lots of dynamism, lots of movement and the Rossoneri left waiting for mistakes that didn’t come.
Two minutes into the game, the writer says that he turned to a colleague next to him in the press area and said to him: “Do you know what vibes I have? From the first leg of the EuroDerby.”
The reference was, obviously, to the Champions League semi-final first leg which Milan lost 2-0 last May, when Inter dominated their rivals in every area of the pitch and phase of the game.
Against Roma the difference between the two teams was certainly not as clear and unbalanced as in the matches against Inter, but, as the minutes passed, the feeling grew stronger until the final whistle came.
Milan lost against Roma because they were unable to find remedies for the defensive obstacles put there by the excellent Daniele De Rossi and because they were unable to ever really grab a hold of the game.
Net of the questionable refereeing episodes, yesterday’s loss at San Siro showed an ugly Milan, disheartening in its slow play of the ball without finding solutions, discouraging in its imprecise pressing both in distance (between the players) and timings.
Pioli clearly lost the first test against De Rossi and now he must find adequate tactical counter-moves for the return leg. However, some individuals did not look up for the occasion too, and the author adds that Rafael Leao had a contender for ‘worst match of his Rossoneri career’.
